"If you want to get out there and play a long tune, you'd better be able to build a solo rather than just sort of noodling around." Sam Bush Back in the Saddle by Michael Parrish

Few musicians convey their joy in playing music as effectively as fiddler/mandolin player Sam Bush. On stage, Bush typically sports a wide-mouthed grin as his whole body rocks in time with the steady beat he chops out on his venerable Gibson F-5. Long-time leader of the influential and beloved Newgrass Revival (NGR), Bush has recently re-emerged as a soloist/bandleader after a five-year stint in Emmylou Harris' Nash Ramblers. Bush talked about his life's work at the 1997 Telluride Bluegrass Festival before he began his usual rounds of guesting with most of the mainstage musicians, in addition to playing his own marathon Saturday night set.

Should he choose to do so, Bush could probably be elected mayor of Telluride. He is certainly one of the most visible and popular of the musicians who perform at the festival. "The first time we came here was in '75, so this is my 23rd year of a 24-year-old festival. You know, people have to rotate their talent, so I just feel very fortunate." Bush was a child prodigy of sorts, playing fiddle and mandolin and making his Grand Old Opry debut at age 17. His first band, The Bluegrass Alliance, started his trend toward stretching the boundaries of bluegrass, something for which he became famous (and, perhaps in some circles, infamous) in the Newgrass Revival (NGR). Bush described how the NGR's style, a stunning mix of virtuosity, eclecticism, and counter-cultural good humor, developed. "We were trying to figure out if we could play an improvisational style of bluegrass, and we figured out there was a group already doing that: Bill Monroe! Those guys improvised every solo. So what we did was kind of take ideas of the day: extended jamming that really came into rock and roll in the 60s, although jazz had always had that. We kind of introduced the idea of playing it on bluegrass instruments. Plus, we had the hippie look, so people were wondering, 'Why do they do that?' We started out kind of working up rock and roll songs that we liked bluegrass style and drifted into writing our own material, ending up with something the best explanation for might be contemporary music played on traditional bluegrass instruments. It's funny that when we started we sure made a statement that we wanted to be different from other bands, but some people misunderstood and thought we were trying to take away from traditional bluegrass. If anything, we thought that would make us attractive to traditional bluegrass festivals because it would be a good variety to have us on those shows."

NGR shifted its focus over the years, from a straight jamming band to one that increasingly brought other influences into its music. The pump was primed by the addition of new members. When John Cowan joined on bass, he brought in some soul and rhythm and blues. Béla Fleck and Pat Flynn brought a more precise brand of instrumental virtuosity. Fleck brought some Celtic influences, as well, while Flynn brought a penchant for writing memorable songs. Although the group developed a bit of an outlaw reputation, they maintained a healthy respect for their musical roots. "I think we were irreverent with our humor, but not with our music. It's interesting that the longer we had the band, the more comfortable we became with playing traditional songs, having fun with that. Once we felt like we had our own band and we had a sound that we enjoyed, then it was OKfor us to haul off and play 'Molly and Tenbrooks.' Now it's funny that since we don't have the Revival any more, I get to play in bluegrass jams where the point of reference is Bill Monroe. We're up on stage and need a song and bam! somebody plays 'Can't You Hear Me Calling.' When I play with my band, I like to have it plugged in and have a drummer, so I guess that's the Newgrass side of me coming out."

One of the Revival's trademarks was Cowan's and Bush's warm, soulful vocal blend. Bush also admires Cowan's instrumental prowess. "I'm very fortunate that John has the time right now to be my bass player. I decided to have my own band, call it my name. That John has the time and wants to be part of it is very flattering. I love him; he's one of my closest friends. We have a natural thing going, even if it's just the two of us. We came here to Telluride over the winter, just the two of us on mandolin and bass, and we had a ball. His timing is so good — he's a wonderful bass player. Electric bass players can ruin everything in acoustic music. He could overplay, but just doesn't. If John wanted to really concentrate on the guitar, he could be a great guitar player, too. He's a good slide guitar player, but he's more interested in singing. It's like when the bass player is really doing their job, nobody notices." In 1989, Bush and Fleck took part in another memorable ensemble, Strength in Numbers, which also included Mark O'Connor, Jerry Douglas, and Edgar Meyer. This all-instrumental group grew out of many hours of jamming, on stage and off, at Telluride and other festivals and recorded one memorable album, The Telluride Sessions. When Béla Fleck and Pat Flynn decided to move on to other projects, Bush and Cowan gave some thought to keeping the NGR going, but decided they needed a breather. "I had been in the band for 18 years at that point, and I was just kind of suffering as leader of the band by being consumed by the music business. I wasn't having as much fun musically as I ought to have been. I was doing an awful lot — we all were — of activities that had nothing to do with playing music. It was just show biz, which is a necessary evil and you need it. But we were all just simply a bit stretched. John seriously wanted to try his own thing. I knew I wanted to try something different, but I didn't know what it was." Bush ended up spending five years in the fiddle-mandolin spot of the Nash Ramblers. "I never thought I would be in a band for five years after being in the Revival, but we just had so much fun. Emmylou discovered what an ass-kicking unit you can have with an acoustic band. I don't think she expected us to be so tough and rowdy. It was simpler music than the Revival, and I learned that you don't have to fill every gap with high energy beat-you-in-the-face music, which, really, I like to do. I enjoy playing music with a lot of drive. I also learned a lot about singing from Emmylou. I've really had two of the best imaginable vocal coaches with her and John. I also learned the beauty and power of a slow song.

"When we worked up the music for the Live at the Ryman album, we all did get to contribute, pitching in ideas about songs we would like to do, even though she was the lead singer. It was a very joyful time for all of us — we got together a couple of times a week at Emmylou's house for three or four months, and all of a sudden we had a bunch of songs that she had never recorded, so it was a live album concept without doing her greatest hits. "After going through sort of a business burnout at the end of the Revival, it was the first time I had been part of an organization where I wasn't the boss. Emmylou was the boss, and if I wanted to do things her way, that was great. If not, she would be there. It was ironic that I had planned to leave the Ramblers at the end of '94, and the whole thing just sort of stopped together, as it all turned out. Emmylou was ready to go on to something new, and I was ready to get back to recording my own stuff. I knew my ego would rear its ugly head sometime; I just didn't know when." The year after the Nash Ramblers broke up, Bush toured as a hired gun for a couple of other artists: Lyle Lovett and his old NGR partner, Béla Fleck. "Béla was going to do a deal where it remained a trio, the Flecktones, but where he added a fourth, and sometimes even a fifth, musician when he knows he is repeating towns he has been to before. I think that's a great idea — he's got a sax player with him here at Telluride. I think I did 68 shows with the Flecktones in 1995, which is a lot of damn shows traveling around. I had a ball playing with them, and once again, it was great for me and Béla because all the Revival people felt we were very successful at music; we just weren't always successful as four business partners. I respect Béla's music, and if I want to go play with the Flecktones, I think it's my job to try to accommodate myself to what he's doing. It was great because he gave me so much freedom. With that freedom comes responsibility in improvisation. If you want to get out there and play a long tune, you'd better be able to build a solo rather than just sort of noodling around. It whetted my appetite to play improvisational music again in my own band."

Bush pulled together his own band shortly before recording Glamour and Grits. "John Cowan and I were hired to come to Telluride to play our own set after the Revival broke up. I was playing with John Randle and Larry Atamanuik already in the Nash Ramblers, so they were also available if the Ramblers weren't playing. Then we discovered that John and John and I had a really good vocal blend. We put all that together to play at the festival, and we were all working on tunes, and I thought, 'This great, the way these songs are coming together.' So, by the time we recorded Glamour and Grits, we had played most of them on stage several times.

"As I go through this touring year, we're slipping in new songs here and there. For me, it just changes it completely, playing them in front of people. It sounds so great sitting in a studio jamming, but boy the moment of truth is there when you spread out on stage and see how the audience responds to them. I really do like trying them out live a few times before recording them."

Most of the songs on the album sound like they were recorded live or with minimal rehearsal. "Some of them we may have taken a couple of days to record just because we might record one for a couple of hours and I'd say, 'This isn't happening, let's record something else,' then we'd come back to it a couple of days later. First or second take, you've got it. My approach on that record was to have as spontaneous a thing happening as possible. But I think the audience can tell when you obviously just threw something on there. If it seems like I take a long time before projects, it's because I want to have something to say rather than just throwing something together for want of something better to do. I've been fortunate because playing in other people's bands has allowed me to take some time until I had something to say."

The material Bush chose was a mixed bag of originals and old favorites. "I wrote some of it. The two Béla and I wrote we originally wrote for Strength in [Numbers]. Béla and I wrote four tunes that day and, thankfully, I taped them. I was co-producing John Randall for RCA at one time, and we kept going around to Nashville publishing houses looking for hip commercial songs, and I kept finding ones that weren't commercial, but were songs that I loved. I played on the song demo for 'Same Old River' with the writer, Jeff Black, and I just filed that one away. He's got about four or five I think are just superb. 'Old Joe Clark,' Darrell Scott, my guitar player, had co-written, but I hadn't heard it. I was going around looking for songs, and the lady at EMI said, 'This isn't a commercial hit, but you gotta hear this song.' I heard it and said 'Gimme that tape, that's for me!' 'Spider John' is an old Willis Alan Ramsey song. I've always loved that tune and it is kind of personal to me that it was a real favorite of Fred Shelton, who was one of the original promoters here at Telluride. It's almost as if that song was about Fred."

Although his band is touring frequently, Bush is selective about where he plays. "We're doing some festivals this summer. I do want to stay out of beer joints for now. Beer joints should be for drinking and having fun. But I just want to be in a better presentation, so we're playing a lot of festivals, Telluride, Merle Watson, and Strawberry. I'm playing with my band here on Saturday, then playing with Lyle Lovett on Sunday. I'll join up with Lyle for a couple of weeks, split off on certain weekends, then go back and play with Lyle. I feel fortunate that I can do a variety of things, and that keeps me interested. I'm not sure I could do just one thing again — not that I ever did, but I was just so dedicated to the Newgrass boys for so long. The word 'tour' is show business. To bluegrass bands, it's just playing. We go out and make a living, just play. It helps your chops, too. I play a lot of session work, but it's not as demanding, or as much fun, as hopping and stomping on stage."

The Telluride Festival's diverse flavor mirrors Bush's and the Newgrass Revival's musical eclecticism. "I'm proud of the fact that our band was part of the acceptance of different kinds of music out here, so I feel that we've helped build this audience."

It's ironic that the Newgrass Revival has, since their demise, achieved status much greater than they enjoyed during their time together. "It's interesting; we were doing really well. We just broke up because we wanted to do other things. I can say we were getting better, and I think that last album we made was possibly our best one. I may have other favorites just for sentimental reasons, but whenever I hear that last one we made, I feel that all the guys were all on top of it. I'm kind of amazed — we were really kind of a high-tech band."

A guilty pleasure side project for Bush is Duck Butter, an electric blues-rock band. "Duck Butter's our sloppy rock band. We got together in like 1980. The drummer and I were in high school rock bands together, so I was a closet rocker. We're all from Bowling Green, Kentucky. John Cowan's in the band. We've got two bass players, so John can be Johnny Ham-mike when he wants to be, or he can play bass when he wants to. The other bass player is tremendous, Byron House — he's a Nashville session guy now. Kenny Lee is on slide guitar — he and I were guitar buddies in high school, trying to learn how to play electric guitar together. When Courtney and Curtis had left the Revival and John and I were still playing with Leon Russell, we had some time off, so we just started jamming with our friends in Bowling Green. I get to play electric guitar, which I love, although I know that once every two or three months is enough for me and the listeners. It's a party band, a dance band. Hearing John sing Aretha Franklin songs in the same key she recorded them in is a gas.

"We just got together for jam sessions. We never dreamed we could get paid for doing it. Of course, nobody in Duck Butter does that for a living. Kenny Lee, our leader, has a blues trio; he tours around the southeast playing in blues clubs. People have said, 'Why don't you guys make a record?' and that would just spoil everything. I try not to get too serious about playing this festival, for example, but you do."

One of Bush's trademarks is his strong, steady mandolin chop, which filled the percussion role in the NGR. "Bill Monroe started that chopping style on the mandolin, and I've always loved that. Any time a mandolin player uses it, they're influenced by Bill Monroe. Maybe they've been influenced by a guy who got it from Bill Monroe, and they've never listened to Bill. One thing I've noticed over the years is that every mandolin player has his own kind of chop. It's just an individual way we all play. In my case, I just got so turned on to the percussive aspect of it — the Newgrass Revival didn't have a drummer, so especially after Béla and Pat [Flynn] joined, I really concentrated on sort of popping the backbeat. All the hot licks were covered by Béla and Pat. I got turned on to reggae because Bob Marley was such a wonderful rhythm guitar player. It reminded me very much of Bill Monroe's rhythm on mandolin. So it was the rhythm that attracted me first, then I got turned on to the wonderful songs. The bass playing, Bob's wonderful singing. Bob's still the best thing in reggae for me. Even though the band I've got now has a drummer, I still play rhythm — I can be satisfied just doing that. Every once in a while the ego rears up, and I want to play a solo, but it is the rhythm that is the most fun. When I'm playing on a recording, I want it to be as solid as absolutely possible."

A unique part of Bush's performing repertoire is his mastery of the electric slide mandolin. "I can't believe that I was the first person who thought that up, in 1971. I can't believe that someone didn't do it earlier, maybe Johnny Shines? I really just kind of stumbled into it. Curtis Burch was a great Dobro player, and he had various Dobros and National steel guitars. He had a National metal bodied guitar that he bought in a pawn shop in Jacksonville, Florida, and he bought this National mandolin also, which he sold to me. I had high hopes of playing it like I play the Fender mandolin, but I found out that the intonation was so off that it would only play in tune with the bridge in one spot. So I messed around trying to play it with a bottleneck at the time and started listening to some slide guitar players. I got really turned on to Duane Allman, and that led to listening to a bunch of older slide players. I still use a Coracidan bottle, which is what Duane Allman used. I tried it, and it really happened to just fit my finger, too. I've got the action really high on that National, Dobro style, so I can really only chord it with the bottle, so it's too limited for bluegrass. I can really only use it for a few kinds of songs. I've got one tune on the album, 'Watson Allman.' Merle Watson and I used to listen to Duane Allman, so it's out of respect for my two favorite slide players — Duane on electric and Merle on acoustic."

As he geared up for yet another Telluride marathon, Bush contemplated its changing personality. "You know, over the years, the festival has grown up a lot. It was always a professional presentation, but things have changed. We used to be performers driving around in our vans. Now it's show business." And it would be an entirely different show without Sam Bush.